CH 46

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Roy, Janice’s boyfriend, was running home after finally getting the requested bottle of rum.

He didn’t want to keep her waiting, so he took whatever back alley he could to get home faster.

The owner of the liquor store was irritated with him for forcing the store to sell the rum after the closing hour, but he didn’t care. Anything the shop keeper could do was nothing compared to facing Janice’s wrath.

Actually, Janice had saved him from being sold to brothel in order to pay off her mother’s debt. Well, his owner had simply changed from ‘brothel’ to ‘Janice’, so saying that he was saved was a bit of a stretch, but Roy thought it was better to only serve one woman, than to serve many different women that he didn’t know.

At first he considered himself fortunate to belong to such a beautiful woman, until he later learned that she was a violent sadist that took great pleasure in his suffering.

Once they had started living together, Janice would punish Roy for every little thing.

From morning till night, she would look for anything that Roy might have done wrong, blame him for his mistakes, and punishing him in ever more vicious ways. He was frightened by Janice’s eyes and grew obsessed with keeping her from getting angry.

Conversely, after the chastisement or when Roy did something to make Janice happy, she would become very gentle, and Roy quickly learned which side of her he preferred. It took less than ten days for Roy, frightened by the mental and physical pressure, to come under Janice’s absolute control.

As Janice had said it herself, Roy was an eager puppet.

Roy could not have prepared for the sight that awaited him when he returned home; the house was still standing, but some force had slammed down on the roof and punched the centre out of it and tunnelled into the street.

“Roy, what happened here?” The people around him started asking questions he couldn’t answer.

“I just… got back here…”

As the crowd murmured among themselves, the smoke oozing out of the wreckage suddenly sputtered to life and bright flames began to light up the rubble in the pit.

“This is bad. Quickly gather people who can use water magic!”

The firefighting efforts began immediately. Luckily, the fire didn’t spread because the damaged portion was in the pit, but once the fire was extinguished, the house was filled with standing water.

Roy was stunned as he examined what remained of the household.

There was a danger of the building collapsing, but if he did not take out what he could, he would have nothing to start the day tomorrow. Janice had a considerable amount of silver coins, which he wanted to secure at all costs. Roy was still numb, having not taken a moment to really let the situation sink in; there would be time to grieve and panic later, for now he needed to see what could be salvaged.

His long time neighbours only stood by and watched as he descended into the unstable wreckage.

The bottom of the crater was sticky due to the water mixed with whatever ash remained from thew fire, but what seemed most important was the ominous creaking that came from the shifting debris around him. Every nerve in his body screamed to run, but he forced himself to continue.

Scattered around the crater floor were the mangled bodies of what he assumed had been Janice’s crew, the horrible sight mitigated only by the fact they were damaged beyond recognition. It helped him ignore the bile in his throat.

Beside the bodies, he could see several flattened silver coins lying around.

He hurriedly picked them up and stuffed them into his pocket. But at that moment, Roy thought he heard a faint voice calling him.

“Ro… y…”

Was it his imagination? No, it was faint, but he was certain that it was Janice’s voice.

“Janice?” Roy looked around nervously.

“I’m… here…”

A voice could be heard from the direction of where the toilet used to be. When he looked closer, he found Janice lying in the sooty rubble.

“Janice!”

He rushed over to her in panic, but Janice seemed unable to move and only let out a low groan.

“What… are you doing… Quick… the healer…”

Under the light of the lantern, Roy could see her stained with blood and soot, half her beautiful face forever disfigured from the flame.

“I-I understand… But the healer won’t come unless I pay her upfront…”

“At my waist… money bag…”

He fearfully reached around her waist and found a heavy purse. In a glance he realized that it contained not only silver coins, but some gold coins as well.

“Quick… Hurry…”

“A-alright.”

Roy grabbed the pouch and ran up the slope of the crater, charging toward the main street. After he turned left into Lupanto Plaza, it would only be a short distance to the healer’s quarter.

She would probably be reluctant to make a home visit at this time of night, but Roy was certain that an offering of seven silver coin would change her mind. With these thoughts in mind, he sped off into the darkness of the night.

By the time he reached the square the young man was out of breath. He’d been running as hard as he could as his chest burned for the effort, so he slowed down his running speed to catch his breath just a little bit.

He was afraid that Janice might be angry with him later; the thought that she might make him dress in an embarrassing way and whip him struck Roy, but still his body wouldn’t listen to him.

Will Janice get mad at me if I take too long?

Roy remembered the mangled woman he’d seen earlier; her whole body was covered in blood, her face was swollen from burns, and her bones looked broken. Instead of the usual terrifying and undefeatable air she carried about herself, she looked small and pitiful, possibly even at death’s door.

Could she scold me in that condition?

Could she whip me with that broken arm?

While being as battered and bloody, could she give me the usual obscene chastisement that I find so horrifying to even recall?

Roy finally noticed the weight of the money bag that he’d been carrying in his right hand. He stopped walking and stared at the road ahead.

If I were to go left, I would find the healer’s house, but if I went right…

Roy wasn’t sure what he might find if he went right at the crossroads ahead, but he had a feeling that he might find freedom.

His heart, which had finally started to calm down, began to pound uncontrollably again.

After taking a deep breath, Roy kicked the ground again and started running…

…and he turned right at the intersection without hesitation.

This is the greatest chance that God has given me in life!

Roy charged boldly into the darkness ahead and never looked back.

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T/L Notes: Next chapter we’ll return to our main hero again, don’t worry.